Jatinga

Assam · Indien · Natural site

The villagers took it for evil spirits falling out of the sky — and the valley where birds plunge toward the lights is still called cursed.

For generations the villagers of Jatinga explained what happened every autumn in one way only: evil spirits were falling out of the sky. On moonless, foggy nights in September and October, birds plunge by the hundreds toward the village lights along a ridge barely a mile long, and the 'bird suicides' made the valley notorious as cursed ground.

Since the 1960s, ornithologists such as Salim Ali have shown the birds are most likely disoriented by monsoon fog and high winds and drawn to the light sources — but no explanation covers everything: why this ridge, why only these nights, why only certain species. And each autumn the village still waits for the nights when the sky rains birds.

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Wo befindet sich Jatinga?

Jatinga liegt in Assam, Indien.